When compared to other texts on the subject, Global Marketing still has three main distinguishing features:

1. There are no introductory chapters on “the international environment” of politics, finance, legal issues, and economic regions. With the exception of culture, the book covers the environmental variables on an “as needed” basis, in the various chapters.

2. As opposed to the traditional view of one “marketing manager,” the typical global marketing manager's job consists of three separate tasks: foreign entry, local marketing, and global management. Each requires different skills, as we will see. Our metaphor is that the marketer wears “three hats,” sometimes successively. In foreign entry, in global management, and to a large extent even as a local marketer in a foreign country, the global marketer needs skills that the home market experience—or the standard marketing text—have rarely taught. The recognition of the three roles helps dispel the notion that “there is no such thing as international or global marketing, only marketing.” This sentiment has some truth to it, but mainly in the local marketing portion of the job.

3. The material is based on a foundation of strategy and the theory of the multinational firm—for the most practical of reasons, because the theory helps the marketing manager understand what drives the company expansion abroad and how and when to adapt the various marketing functions involved to local conditions.

At the same time, much of the excellent research and tried-and-true teaching material that global marketers in business and academe have contributed over the years is reflected in the chapters and in the several cases that can be found at the end of each major section. My intent has been to retain and update much of the teaching and instructional material that has made global marketing such an exciting class in many business schools—and made for the start of an exciting managerial career—and to fit the material into a structure that reflects the global marketing management tasks. I have focused on material that is timely and up-to-date, and relevant to the global context.

TARGET AUDIENCE AND POSSIBLE COURSES

Global Marketing is aimed at the executive, the MBA student, or senior undergraduate, none of whom is completely new to marketing or to the global environment. I have in mind a reader who is familiar with the basic marketing principles, and who has had some exposure to the international environment and the thrust toward a global economy. I have avoided unnecessarily complicated jargon—the global marketing job is inherently complex, and any opportunity to “keep it simple” has been capitalized on.

The three-way partition of the book makes it possible to construct several alternative course outlines from the book.

• A complete course on “Global Marketing,” possibly using additional cases, is the “full-course” treatment.
• A shorter “Global Marketing Management” course, perhaps for executives, could go straight from the fundamentals in the first three chapters to Part Four, “Global Management,” starting with Chapter 11. This is one approach I have used at Georgetown .
• An “International Marketing” course could focus on local marketing and global management, Parts Three and Four.
• An “Export Marketing” course could select the foreign entry chapters from Part Two, and then do the local marketing chapters in Part Three plus the pricing and distribution chapters in Part Four, “Global Management.”
• At Georgetown I have also used the text in a second-year MBA class titled “Foreign Market Development,” for which I assign Parts Two and Three on foreign entry and local marketing, and then only the first three chapters of Part Four, “Global Management.”

NEW TO THE FIFTH EDITION

The fifth edition keeps the original structure (Foreign Entry, Local Marketing, Global Management) that has proved successful and popular among users. But based upon user and reviewer feedback, several changes have been introduced in order to make the text more relevant, useful, and up-to-date.

The five major changes are:

1. There is a new chapter on “Global Branding” (Chapter 13). This chapter extends the branding discussion in the previous edition, and adds new material on brand equity and on the added value that “globality” confers upon a brand. It also introduces the concept of country branding.

2. The “Global Marketing Strategy” chapter (Chapter 11), leading off Part Four on “Global Management” is a revised and updated version of the “Global Segmentation and Positioning” chapter in the fourth edition. The chapter still covers new research on global segmentation and positioning, but adds new material on resource allocation across products and markets.

3. The “Global Product” and “Global Services” chapters have been consolidated into Chapter 12, made possible by breaking out “Global Brands” into its own chapter. This means the fifth edition has the same number of chapters as the fourth.

4. The region-specific chapters in Part Three on “Local Marketing”—mature markets in Chapter 8, new growth markets in Chapter 9, and emerging markets in Chapter 10—have been updated taking into account not only economic developments such as China's and India's emergence as major players, but also the new Russia, Vietnam, and the Middle East.

5. The e-commerce material in Chapter 17 has been updated, revised, and extended, recognizing the amazing developments after the emergence of Web 2.0.

There are also several other changes that serve to improve the coverage and incorporate new thoughts and research findings in global marketing. The local market research discussion in Chapter 7 has been expanded to incorporate more of the measurement and sampling difficulties in various countries that jeopardize comparability across markets. And, of course, many of the illustrations of global marketing practice in the “Getting the Picture” boxes have been updated or newly written.

Even with these changes, the basic structure of the text is the same as before. The sequence of an initial “Fundamentals” part followed by the three tasks involved in global marketing—foreign entry, local marketing, and global management—has proven resilient. According to instructor and student feedback, the structure facilitates both learning and teaching because it clarifies naturally the sometimes complex responsibilities and relationships that have to be managed in global marketing.